Passport To The Sun set to roll for Christmas

Following the enormous success of the first series of Passport To The Sun made by Lion TV for BBC1 earlier this year, the start of the second series is just weeks away but this time around the series, which looks at life in Majorca, has its very own Christmas Special to wet the appetites of millions of viewers, many of whom will be sitting in their sand-bagged living rooms and longing for a bit of sunshine and fun in their lives over the winter. The Passport To The Sun Christmas Special which kicks off with the Bulletin and the newlyweds Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones, as does the series, goes to air next Tuesday at 1.30 local time and the second series starts on New Year's Day. The New Year's Day and January 2 programmes are being broadcast at 1.15 and 1.20, after which the daily Monday to Friday slot will be 1pm. The first series averaged a daily audience of between 1.8 and two million viewers, setting new records for day time television and the new series will be longer with 40 episodes in total aimed at a total audience of around 80 million once the series has finished. The success of the first series was somewhat unexpected, it was repeated on BBC1 over the summer and then went out on satellite television, attracting millions more viewers across the world, and a similar response, if not better, is expected in the New Year. Some of the local characters who proved a success in the first series are featured in the second with the viewers at home keen to find out what has happened over the past 12 months, while a number of new and fresh faces also feature this time around. While the first series was a mixture of local life and tourism, the series makers tried to take a closer and deeper look at Britons living in Majorca and get “under the skin” of the local communities and local issues. From the rich and famous to community organisations to local stars, business people and lovers of the island they are all featured as well as what they get up to on the island. Series makers said yesterday that one of the episodes, in which local entertainer Leepy Lee and his wife welcome their twins into the world, has had people in tears “it's a wonderful piece.” It was the vast array of people, situations and tales in the first series that made the programme so successful.